This paper aims to come up with a hypothesis on the regional tale zone in the motif of 〈getting on well with doggaebi and getting benefits〉 and solidify the concept of the kulturkreise through the comparison of dialect regions, boundaries between two distinct linguistic regions and the areas of folklore. The main reason for the attempt to solidify the concept of the kulturkreise presented as a hypothesis based on variations of the motif of 〈getting on well with doggaebi and getting benefits〉 is that the tale of this type retains the characteristics of the community, which has accumulated forms of life and culture in a specific locality over a long period of time. These characteristics of the community are a part of the ‘cultural expression’ presented in the tales. However, as the concept of the kulturkreise is a hypothesis, the boundary line can be blurry. That is why this paper attempts to prove the validity of the boundary through the comparison of the regions of dialect and the regions of folklore. In order to identify the boundaries of each area of culture, the variations of each version are derived and marked with signs on the map. The process in which ‘the hero comes across the doggaebi’, accumulates wealth by taking advantage of the doggaebi and gets rid of the doggaebi, shows a wide range of variety; furthermore, in the process of getting rid of the doggaebi, the countermeasures of the doggaebi against the hero are varied and comprise the type of tales. The areas of the corresponding tales are demarcated and presented as follows: region A comprising Pyeongan-do, region B comprising Gyeonggi-do, Gangwon-do, and Chungcheong-do, region C covering Jeolla-do, and region D covering Gyeongsang-do. As the concept of the regional tale zone is hypothetical, by comparing the distribution of the dialect variations of the word “yeowida” with the regions of dialect, it is confirmed that the two regions overlap. In addition, the forms of the words of the 15th century are still used in 〈getting on well with doggaebi and getting benefits〉. By marking signs on the map based on the doggaebi-gosa now in decline and identifying their distributions, in Region B, it is possible to establish that the doggaebi appears as “the object of serving”, while in Region C, the concept of doggaebi as ‘the objective of eradication’ is dominantly passed down to posterity, and is presumed to contribute to formation of the type of 〈getting on well with doggaebi and getting benefits〉. Therefore, this paper confirms that tales express the characteristics and transform them in a specific locality, and comes up with the possibility of at least finding out ‘the method of cultural expression’.

Doggaebi, Doggaebi-gosa, Yeowida, Kulturkreise, Regional Tale Zone, Regions of Dialect, Region of Folklore